CEROC

Ceroc is different to many other dance organisations for a number of reasons. Firstly, as a franchise operation it closely monitors the quality of applicants and their progression. All teachers have to pass a rigorous examination, and some do fail, so the quality of teaching is always of a high standard. Secondly, because Ceroc is a network it has the ability to standardise the format of teaching and classes and with the wealth of experience gathered over the years we all know that system works and gets the best results from everyone in attendance. Thirdly, the network works together in such a way that classes are always different through the week - this means that no matter where you go the Tues night beginners class will always be a different routine to the Weds class - so you could dance 5 nights (and yes, some people do!) a week and learn a different sequence every night. Then of course there's the scale: nearly 200 regular nights a week in virtually every major part of the UK, an International network covering 14 countries and over 100,000 active members in the UK alone.

Lastly, Ceroc invests in dancing and in growing the dance community as a whole. Each year Ceroc spends an enormous sum of money on National advertising and campaigns to bring dancing to the awareness of the general public. Ceroc have also worked with the Governement on ways of encouraging people to take more exercise and are currently involved in a pilot proposal for taking dancing into schools. Outside of this franchisee's can often be found out dancing with their crew on the street (busking) and handing out flyers - as always, the emphasis at Ceroc is about bringing new people into dancing and that is something they have been doing for over 27 years now.

The Liberty Ballroom

Dance venues across the UK are being shut down on a regular basis, so it is so refreshing to find venue managers like Steve and Lindsey who are keen to invest in their business and who love what they do. The Liberty really is a special venue with a rich and vibrant history and with what's widely recognised as one of the best sprung dunce floors in the South - and now it's just got better! Steve and Lindsey have completely redecorated and also installed a brand new sound and lighting system. The Liberty really is now a cut above most venues in the South and with capacity for over 250 dancers, will be back to it's vibrant self in no time at all.

Ceroc Newbury

Here at Ceroc Newbury we are truly passionate about what we do - from the teaching to the music and even to the selection of our crew and taxi dancers, we are constantly striving for perfection. This is our business and we never lose sight of the fact that it can only be successful if our customers are happy - and the only way we can do that is to listen to our customers and to constantly evolve our business. On that basis a major innovation that we will be introducing at CN is that we will be teaching with two head mics. We're not aware of any dance night in the UK where this happens, and yet we've come to realise that it is so important. We will both teach from the stage in the beginners and intermediate classes and with each of us wearing a head mic we are able to give teaching points from both the male and female perspective. This also allows us to be instantly reactive to how the class is progressing. This makes the teaching more effective and should make the classes more relevant to everyone in attendance.

The other major innovation that we are introducing is the special 20 min induction class at the start of every evening for complete beginners. We considered this to be important because beginners have so much to think about when they start that many key points wash over them during the class. This 20 min session will enable us to focus on connection, lead and follow, hand holds and hand heights and on the step back and semi-circle initial lead - in fact, all those things that we know from experience that beginners always struggle with on their first few evenings.

Lastly, what makes us different as teachers is that after teaching we do get out on the floor and dance with everyone, beginners and advanced dancers alike - and if people are too frightened to ask us to dance, then we'll ask them! It sounds like a given, but you would be amazed at the number of dance nights we've been to where the teachers teach and then disappear off stage somewhere or who only dance with dancers of a certain ability. We've always considered that to be wrong, and you won't find us hiding at CN - please come up and ask us to dance, we're actually much smaller in real life when we step down off the stage...